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First Impressions

by Jude Deveraux



      When you crack open a brand new Jude Deveraux novel you know that you are in the hands of a real pro, and can expect something special. Eden Palmer has single-handedly raised her daughter Melissa, the offspring of a rape. Taken in by the irascible but kindly Mrs Farrington, after she was thrown out by her fanatically religious parents, she came to know and love the town of Arundel and the lovely Farrington Manor. Twenty-two years later Eden finds out that Mrs Farrington has left her the property in her will, and she sees this as a chance to let her newly married daughter and her husband make it on their own. But the FBI is interested in Eden, and has sent an agent to spy on her. What is her connection with a recently dead spy, and is solicitous solicitor Braddon Granville all he seems?

All this sounds ordinary enough perhaps, but Jude Deveraux has a way of taking the ordinary, giving it a tweak and turning the lead of a bare plotline into the gold of a bestseller. All the usual special magic is in here, and here is a gothic novel (which, you remember is about "a girl who gets a house") for the twenty-first century reader. A wonderful old house, missing jewels, secret agents, plenty of romance in the right places as well as suspense and at the heart of it all a forty-five year old heroine, strong and beautiful, getting her chance at last to grasp life with both hands. As well as all the adventure, it is a story about having a second chance at life and love, uplifting and imaginative, without descending into banality. Very highly recommended.

The Book

Simon & Schuster
January 2006
Hardback
0743263839
Romantic Suspense
More at Amazon.com US || UK
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2006
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© 2006 MyShelf.com